1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to a feed composition, and more specifically to an animal feed composition formulated to provide increased production of glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary (2002) defines a carotenoid as any of various usually yellow to red pigments (as carotenes) found widely in plants and animals and characterized chemically by a long aliphatic polyene chain composed of eight isoprene units.
The Merriam-Webster® Medical Dictionary (2002) defines a methionine as a crystalline sulfur-containing essential amino acid C5H11NO2S that occurs in the L-form as a constituent of many proteins (as casein and egg albumin), that is important especially as a source of sulfur for the biosynthesis of cysteine and as a source of methyl groups for transmethylation reactions (as in the biosynthesis of choline, creatine, and adrenaline), and that is used as a dietary supplement for human beings and their domestic mammals and poultry and in the treatment of fatty infiltration of the liver.
The Merriam-Webster® Medical Dictionary (2002) defines a cysteine as a sulfur-containing amino acid C3H7NO2S that occurs in many proteins and glutathione and that is readily oxidizable to cystine.
The Merriam-Webster® Medical Dictionary (2002) defines an antioxidant as any of various substances (as beta-carotene, vitamin C, and alpha-tocopherol) that inhibit oxidation or reactions promoted by oxygen and peroxides and that include many held to protect the living body from the deleterious effects of free radicals.
The Merriam-Webster® Medical Dictionary (2002) defines glutathione as a peptide C10H17N3O6S that contains one amino acid residue each of glutamic acid, cysteine, and glycine, that occurs widely in plant and animal tissues, and that plays an important role in biological oxidation-reduction processes and as a coenzyme.
The Merriam-Webster® Medical Dictionary (2002) defines peroxidase as an enzyme occurring especially in plants, milk, and white blood cells and consisting of a protein complex with hematin groups that catalyzes the oxidation of various substances by peroxides.
The Merriam-Webster® Medical Dictionary (2002) defines superoxide dismutase as a metal-containing antioxidant enzyme that reduces potentially harmful free radicals of oxygen formed during normal metabolic cell processes to oxygen and hydrogen peroxide—abbreviation SOD.
The Merriam-Webster® Medical Dictionary (2002) defines an international unit as the amount of specific physiological activity of a standardized preparation (as of a vitamin) that is agreed upon as an international standard especially for comparison with other biologicals containing the substance in impure form or with a related biologically active substance; also: the amount of the biologically active substance in the standard amount of the preparation producing this activity.